Even Then, the Game Was About Marketing

A grand experiment would unfold in Pasadena that day. City fathers decided to stage an intersectional football game to show the nation that in winter, there was no winter here.

It was called boosterism. And what better way to promote growth than a big-time football game? Backers hoped it would result in more growth, which meant more paved streets, higher real estate prices . . . and more tax revenues.

Problem was, West Coast football wasn’t ready. Michigan beat Stanford, 49-0.

Nevertheless, the citizenry responded. It wasn’t called the Rose Bowl game yet because there was no Rose Bowl. That wouldn’t happen until 1923.

For that inaugural game, Stanford was lodged at the Green Hotel, Michigan at the Raymond.

The two teams marched in the Rose Parade to the game site, located at the corner of California and Wilson streets, a site known then as Tournament Park. The site today is across the street from Caltech.

Stanford, clad in red sweaters, marched to its chant: “Give ‘em the ax, the ax, the ax--right in the neck, the neck, the neck . . .”

Behind them, in blue-and-gold sweaters, came Michigan and its chant: “Rah-rah-rah- rah--Mich-i-gan, Mich-i-gan, Mich-i-gan-- Rah-rah-rah-rah . . .”

A crowd of 8,000 that day filled the wooden bleachers to overflowing, and tournament officials announced a profit of $4,000.

But Michigan won so easily that Tournament of Roses officials dropped the game from the Jan. 1 schedule in favor of . . . chariot racing.

Jan. 1 Pasadena football games weren’t resumed until 1916, when Washington State beat Brown, 14-0.